


Song As Old As Rhyme

by callunavulgari



Series: Dark Month Collection [45]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Bonding, Crossdressing, F/M, Fluff, Halloween, M/M, Multi, Silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-30 00:06:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1011671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callunavulgari/pseuds/callunavulgari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I need you to show me how to put on make-up,” he goes, all at once, and she blinks at the seahorse patterned shower curtain. There’s no way she heard that right. She finishes buttoning up her shirt and steps out of the shower carefully, wet feet sliding a little on the tile. “Make-up,” she repeats, looking at him as she winds an elastic band around her hair.</p><p>“Yeah,” he murmurs, embarrassment burning in his eyes. “She uh, wants me to go as Belle.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Song As Old As Rhyme

**Author's Note:**

> Dark Month, Day 20. So, yesterday I was sitting down to write this, when I got a weird phone call from my friend Seth. You guessed it, he was going to a Halloween party as Belle and wanted me to help him do his makeup. So today turned out to be not so dark and creepy, but rather silly and fluffy. Still Halloween-themed though!

Annabeth is brushing her teeth when she gets the Iris message. The mirror is still fogged from her shower, so when Nico’s face appears in the mist around her, she does what any mostly naked girl would do in her situation.   
  
She screams. It isn’t pretty. Toothpaste goes flying everywhere, the toothbrush ends up flying into the toilet, and in her haste grabbing her dagger, she drops her towel.  
  
When she turns back to his image, heart pounding and towel hastily gathered back over her boobs, he’s got both hands over his eyes and is muttering something about being glad that he didn’t just shadow travel to her location.  
  
“Nico,” she mutters in a voice that only cracks a little bit. “Um, what can I help you with?”  
  
His cheeks and ears are bright red, but he slides his fingers apart cautiously, squinting at her for a moment before he breathes a sigh of relief and drops his hands. “Um,” he says eloquently.  
  
She waits, but nope that’s apparently all he’s got.  
  
“Nico,” she growls, heaving her towel up to her armpits. There’s still a streak of toothpaste across her cheek, which she wipes away hastily.  
  
“I need your help,” he squeaks, voice cracking obnoxiously down the middle.   
  
“You need my help with what?” she asks, only a little annoyed, because yeah, she figured. Iris messages usually mean that someone needs help, whether it’s with their homework or with monster.  
  
“Uh,” he starts, blinking rapidly, like that’ll keep his eyes on her face better. “Hazel wants me to go with her to a Halloween party at Percy’s school.”  
  
She blinks at him, unimpressed. She leans closer to his image, shrugging her shoulders and widening her eyes, like _and?_  
  
His blush manages to get worse.  
  
“She uh, has a very specific idea for our costumes and uh, she’s busy helping Frank get ready and you’re the only other girl I know so…”  
  
“You know Piper and Reyna,” she puts in, wondering if she can creep behind the shower curtain and get properly dressed. Yeah, that’s a good plan.  
  
“Yeah, but Piper gets kind of weird around me and I think Reyna would cut my life thread herself if I bothered her with this so—” he trails off, cursing, and there’s the sound of another drachma plunking into water as she’s pulling her underwear up around her hips. She pokes a head out from behind the curtain and raises a brow at him.  
  
“And I wouldn’t?”  
  
“I—well, I hoped you wouldn’t.” He sounds so hopeful that she sighs and goes back to putting her clothes on. “Continue.”  
  
“I need you to show me how to put on make-up,” he goes, all at once, and she blinks at the seahorse patterned shower curtain. There’s no way she heard that right.  
  
She finishes buttoning up her shirt and steps out of the shower carefully, wet feet sliding a little on the tile. “Make-up,” she repeats, looking at him as she winds an elastic band around her hair.  
  
“Yeah,” he murmurs, embarrassment burning in his eyes. “She uh, wants me to go as Belle.”  
  
 _Who's the Beast_ , she almost asks, but bites her tongue at the last second. She really doesn’t want to know.  
  
“Okay,” she shrugs, shaking her head a little to test the durability of her ponytail. It holds.  
  
“Okay?”  
  
“Okay.”  
  
.  
  
Which is how Nico di Angelo ends up in her father’s home on a Saturday night, meek and sheepish as he greets her father and stepmother, shaking both of their hands. He’s usually so busy pretending to be an asshole that she sometimes forgets how adorable he can be.  
  
“C’mon,” she mutters, when it looks like her dad might keep him there all night. “My room.”  
  
“You kids be good,” her dad calls, unconcerned with the fact that a sixteen year old boy is going to be in his daughter’s bedroom. Her stepmother looks slightly less sure, but doesn’t say anything.  
  
“I don’t have much,” she’s telling him as she pushes the door to her room open. He follows her in, shoulders hunched up to his ears. “We aren’t going to attack you,” she sighs, taking a seat on her bed and watching him.   
  
“Okay,” he murmurs, looking around her room in surprise. She wonders if he’s ever been in a girl’s room before or if he’s just puzzled that she actually kind of likes the color pink. “That’s good.”  
  
“So, what does the outfit look like?”  
  
“What?” he asks, attention snapping back to her. She rolls her eyes.   
  
“You’re going as Belle, sure, but which outfit are you going for? Ballroom Belle? The dress she wore in the library? The blue one?”  
  
He blinks at her. “I’ve never actually seen the movie,” he confesses. “But the dress is yellow.”  
  
“You’ve never seen it,” she deadpans, staring at him.  
  
He flushes. “I was trapped in a casino for seventy years,” he hisses, hackles rising.   
  
“Yeah, but Hazel’s watched it enough that even I’ve seen it a couple times.”  
  
“I’ve been helping my father a lot.”  
  
Well, that would explain it. Gods, she can only imagine him trying to watch that movie in the place that Persephone lived most of the year. If there was any movie that he shouldn’t watch around his stepmother, it would be that one.  
  
She sighs, hopping off the bed and crossing to the beat up television sitting on one side of her room. There’s a VCR hooked up to it that works half the time and eats the tapes the rest, but she’s got the movie stashed away somewhere. “Welp, I know what we’re gonna watch while I’m getting your hair did.”  
  
He gives her a flat look. “I didn’t say anything about doing my hair.”  
  
She smirks at him.  
  
.  
  
An hour later, Nico’s eyes are glued to the television and Annabeth has managed to unearth her stepmom’s curling iron and is running it through Nico’s hair. “It’s a good thing you’ve got the hair for this,” she tells him, releasing one steaming, perfect curl. His hair has grown out a little, so it’s ragged ends are hanging just below his shoulders. “I don’t suppose you have the dress with you?”  
  
He shakes his head slowly, carefully, mindful of the hot iron next to his scalp. His eyes don’t move away from the television.  
  
“Hazel has it,” he tells her distractedly. On screen wolves are tearing at a roaring Beast while Belle watches, horrified. His shoulders are tense enough that she sets the iron aside and digs her thumbs into the muscles. He startles and look at her over his shoulder, eyes wide. She’d had to practically sit on him to get him to stop squirming away from the mascara wand, but the effect is worth it—his eyelashes are long and thick enough that they sweep against his cheekbones. She would be jealous if she actually cared about makeup.   
  
She adds her index and pointer fingers to the mix and surprised, he groans. When he looks at her again, his eyes are heated and intense. It’s enough to make a ball of liquid heat settle in her belly. He leans into her touch when she draws her fingers along his pulse, feeling it’s steady beat thrum through her. The room crackles with tension and for precious few seconds, she’s tempted to see what he’d do if she crawled into his lap and kissed him.  
  
The moment snaps and she laughs when he bats at her fingers, muttering in a choked voice, “Stop that, it’s distracting.”  
  
“Wouldn’t want to distract you from the disney movie,” she purrs, her own voice ragged as she grabs for the curling iron again.  
  
She finishes just as the mob is closing in on the castle and flops onto the bed beside him to watch the rest of the movie. He shifts against her, sides pressed together.  
  
“Don’t you dare cry,” she tells him as he sniffles, the Beast cradled in Belle’s arms on screen.  
  
He sends her a waspish look, his eyes slightly red. “I’m not crying,” he mutters, thumping her on the arm.   
  
“Percy cried,” she volunteers, rolling onto her belly and resting her chin on her folded arms.   
  
“Seriously?”  
  
“Like a baby,” she giggles, nodding, but his attention’s already back on the television where the Beast is now wreathed in sparkles.   
  
He does end up crying in the end, but touching up his makeup is totally worth the only living son of Hades smear makeup all over her sheets.  
  
.  
  
Fifteen minutes later, they get an Iris message from Hazel. She looks gorgeous, Tiana’s gown clinging to her curves.  
  
“Oh good,” she says, eyes sparkling with amusement. “You’re already with her.”  
  
Immediately, Annabeth frowns, but Hazel just gives her this shit-eating little smile. “Bring her with you,” she tells Nico. “Ten minutes.”  
  
Then she’s gone and Nico is side-eying her like she’s going to bite him.   
  
“Should I have been doing my own hair too?” she asks, sending him a dangerous smile.  
  
“I really have no idea what she’s up to,” he assures her, hands held out in surrender. “I just needed help with makeup.”  
  
She studies him, eyes narrowed, but he really doesn’t look like he’s lying.  
  
“Fine,” she sighs, getting up to rewind the tape.   
  
“Um,” he says, ten minutes later after she’s told her dad where she’s going and assured him that she’ll be back before one. He’s blushing again. “Just. Hold onto me?”   
  
She rolls her eyes again, but in the end lets him gather her close. He smells like powder and hair spray, his curls tickling her cheek as they step backwards into shadow.  
  
.  
  
Percy, is apparently the one who’s dressed as Beast. He’s standing there next to Frank, who is _literally_ a frog. The sight makes her laugh so hard that she has to end up muffling the sound into Nico’s collar. He panics, a little, his eyes darting from her to Percy like Percy’s going to skewer him with riptide for even thinking of touching her.  
  
“If you dress me up as Gaston, I will end you,” she tells Hazel, reluctantly settling onto the chair.  
  
Hazel’s smile kind of tilts sideways, but eventually she shrugs. “Okay. It doesn’t really go with the theme, but I’ve got a spare Cinderella gown somewhere.”  
  
How a girl from the 30s had adapted so quickly to the 21st century, Annabeth had no idea. Piper’s probably to blame at least a little bit. Her and Hazel had spent the summer at her dad’s house and considering her dad was an actor, well, there were probably movies involved somewhere.  
  
Halfway through makeup and hair Sally arrives with blue chocolate chip cookies and spends a minute studying Nico and Percy before she shrugs.  
  
“Paul’s probably going to regret letting you bring your friends to the dance, isn’t he?” she sighs, setting the tray in front of him. She barely blinks when Frank stops being a frog and starts being a boy again.   
  
“Probably,” Percy mutters, adjusting his collar.  
  
Sally chuckles, drops a kiss onto her son’s brow, and takes her leave, pausing briefly to tell Annabeth how beautiful she looks.  
  
.  
  
“I can’t believe Hazel talked you into this,” she whispers into Percy’s ear later. Nico’s standing somewhere off to their side, nervously tugging at his skirts.   
  
“You try saying no to her,” he whispers back, watching as Piper and Jason go whirling past, Piper as Pocahontas and Jason as John Smith. They grin and wave.  
  
“She should have gone with a Little Mermaid theme,” Annabeth muses, tapping a finger to her lips. “You could have been Ariel, I could have been Eric, and Nico could have been Ursula.”  
  
Nico glowers at her. She just blows a kiss back.  
  
“Want to dance?” Percy asks nervously and she’s watching, so she sees the way Nico’s eyes go shuttered and cold.  
  
“Mmm, no, I don’t think so,” she says, grinning. “You should dance with Nico though. I’ll get us drinks. Off you go.”  
  
.  
  
When she gets back, juggling three cups of hopefully unspiked punch, they are actually dancing, Nico’s skirts twirling around his ankles. They look nervous, but at least they’re laughing.  
  
“I suppose this was your end game?” she says when Hazel sidles up next to her.   
  
Hazel looks at her seriously, before nodding over to Percy and Nico. “You both like him, I know you do. You weren’t going to say anything though, so I figured I might as well give you both a nudge. You are interested, right?”  
  
Annabeth thinks about Nico after the last battle, how he’d trembled as he tried to keep Percy’s soul in his body. “The Fate’s said you don’t die yet,” he’d whispered, shakily, hands slippery with blood. Annabeth had watched his face twist with pain when Percy patted at his hand, blood slicking his teeth when he smiled.  
  
She remembers the realization then, how it had suddenly occurred to her that it was never _her_ that Nico had a crush on.  
  
She’d watched Nico save her boyfriend’s life and then she’d watched him disappear into the background, slinking back to the underworld with shaking, bloodied hands.  
  
She hadn’t seen him again until today, but she had seen Percy after, who’d looked for Nico in every shadow for months. Percy had feelings for him, she knew that. Not enough for him to leave her, but nobody looked at shadows like they were roses without feeling something.  
  
“He doesn’t like girls though,” she finally says and Hazel’s smile widens, like she’s won something.  
  
“No,” she shrugs. “Not really, but he _does_ like _you_.”  
  
Nico and Percy aren’t laughing anymore, but their heads are pressed close together, like they’re talking over the music. Nico’s eyelashes brush against Percy’s cheek, his lips quirked up into an affectionate grin that Percy easily returns. There’s so much tension crackling between them that Annabeth’s mouth goes a little bit dry. She wonders if that’s what she and Percy look like to others.  
  
Just when she’s about to respond to Hazel, their eyes cut over to her. Percy smiles hugely, his cheek pressed up against Nico’s, and Nico’s eyes are soft with contentment, smiling like he’s helpless not to. They beckon to her in unison and her heart gives this weird little jump.  
  
Hazel chuckles at her, shoving Annabeth towards them. “Go on,” she murmurs when Annabeth hesitates. “Percy’s star-crossed, remember? You guys have to make your own happy ending.”  
  
Annabeth smiles at her.   
  
She goes.  
  
(When she kisses Nico ten minutes later he freezes up and they almost trip over him until Percy grins and presses a sloppy kiss to the side of his neck.  
  
Nico looks at them both with wide, hopeful eyes, and they both laugh, leaning forward to kiss him on each cheek.  
  
They’ll make their own happily ever after.)  
  



End file.
